BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Breach of Media Rules, States Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to transmit a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent served in a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
